France election: Francois Hollande and Socialists head for absolute majority

President François Hollande received a powerful mandate to champion growth in
Europe and take on the German-led austerity drive last night as his
Socialist Party headed for control of parliament with an absolute majority.

French President Francois Hollande submitted his ideas to EU partners and the European Council a few days ago ahead of a Group of 20 summit in MexicoPhoto: AFP

Early exit polls suggested the Left would surpass the 289 seats required for total control of the 577-member National Assembly after Sunday's second round of legislative elections – allowing Mr Hollande to implement his tax and spend manifesto with relative ease.

In an electorally small but highly symbolic development, the far-right Front National won its first parliamentary seats in a quarter of a century, while the future of the centrist Modem party was thrown into doubt after leader François Bayrou lost the seat in the Midi-Pyrenees region he had held since 1988.

The Socialists had dominated the first round vote a week earlier. The only question mark was whether they would need to form a partnership with the Greens, with whom they have an electoral accord, or in the worst case scenario with more hardline leftists who oppose their fiscal discipline targets.

Early results suggested the Socialists needed the support of neither group, allowing it to push on with its electoral promises, such as raising the minimum wage and creating 60,000 state teaching posts, which it says it can somehow do while balancing the budget by 2017.

Various exit polls estimated that the Socialists would have between 308 to 320 seats.

"This new solid and large majority will allow us to vote in laws of change and places upon us great responsibilities in France and Europe," said Laurent Fabius, the foreign minister.

Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, which had dominated the assembly for a decade, suffered heavy losses to win 212 seats and now faces a bitter internal leadership battle. The party was riven by a fierce debate over whether to forge alliances with the far-Right during the parliamentary election.

French prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault welcomed the victory of his Socialist Party in legislative elections, saying:"The goal is to shift Europe towards growth and protect the euro zone from speculation. The task before us is immense".

After gaining control of the Senate and the presidency, the Socialists now wield more national power than ever before and the outcome means that Mr Hollande is unlikely to make major changes to his largely social democratic cabinet.

But the result of the election, marred by record low turnout of 44 per cent, is likely to mark the end of Mr Hollande's honeymoon period as he faces the economic realities of a debt-ridden Europe and domestic unemployment of 10 per cent, a 13-year high.

He clinched the presidential election in May in part by warning that his conservative rival Nicolas Sarkozy had erred towards too much belt-tightening and calling for more state-sponsored stimulus to boost growth.

But with Spanish banks just given a new bail-out and Greece's future in the euro in doubt, some commentators warn France could be next for market turmoil unless it makes deeper structural reforms.

Mr Hollande's first wake-up call could be the release of a public finance audit late June expected to show France must slow spending promises to meet its deficit goals.

His stance has put him on collision course with Germany in recent days, with Chancellor Angela Merkel pointing out that France risked further falling behind economically with his policies.

Mr Hollande bowed to Berlin's insistence that Eurobonds – pooling EU debt – should be a long-term prospect in a leaked proposal for 120 billion euros in short-term stimulus measures.